Rhys Hartman likes to count the bathroom ceiling tiles. The TV talks to him. His arms itch with needle marks, his brain itches with the need for both stimulation and silence. He likes when things are so extreme he can feel them.
Following a sports injury and the resulting incident with his mother, Rhys struggles with trying to find some semblance of normalcy; his brother Ethan is never around, leaving hardly anyone to criticize Rhys' spiraling drug problem. That is until, by chance, he meets someone who changes him in ways he can feel in his bones.
Joseph Franzen is a red-bearded, eccentric homesteader, Mennonite, and a teacher at Oak Valley High, a liberal and preforming arts school with high reputation in Birdsboro. Upon meeting what he at first assumes is just another street urchin, Franzen finds himself drawn to Rhys for unknown reasons - the scars he carries, perhaps, or maybe, just maybe, Franzen finds in Rhys a little bit of himself.
After seeing what Rhys was capable of in his former glory days of dancing, Franzen becomes determined to get Rhys into Oak Valley High and off of drugs. Rhys, however, refuses to dance again, leaving Franzen to get creative.
Over tomato salvations, Rhys begins to learn what it really means to be alive, and what one can be capable of, if only they have someone to believe in them.
